And this principle is expressed in the second of all the commandments,

This is the second of all the commandments, for the like reason that the first is the first of all the commandments: it exists and inheres in the nature of things and of intelligences just as soon as a second intelligent creature exists. And also, like the first, this is complete and absolute the moment that two intelligent creatures exist, and it never can be expanded nor can it be modified by the existence of the universe full of other intelligent creatures.

Each, himself alone, in his own individuality, is completely subject and devoted first of all to the Creator; because to Him he owes all. And in this subjection and devotion to the Creator first of all, each honors every other intelligent creature as his equal: as equally with himself occupying his place in the design of the Creator, and responsible individually and only to the Creator for the fulfillment of that design. Therefore, out of respect to the Creator, to his neighbor, and to himself, he loves his neighbor as himself. And this second eternal truth, equally with the first distinguishes individuality as an eternal principle.

This is original government. It is also ultimate government; because these are first principles complete and absolute; and because they eternally inhere in the nature and relationships of intelligent creatures. And this government, which is at once original and ultimate, is simply self-government – self-government in reason and in God. For it is only the plainest, simplest dictate of reason that the intelligent creature should recognize that to the Creator he owes all; and that, therefore, subjection and honor are the reasonable dues from him to the Creator. It is likewise a simple dictate of reason that, since his neighbor equally with himself owes all to the Creator, his neighbor must be respected and honored in all this as he himself would desire to be respected and honored in it.

It is also the simple dictate of reason that, since these have all been created, and in their existence owe all to the Creator, this existence with all its accompaniments in the exercise of abilities and powers should be ever held strictly in accordance with the will and design of the Creator; because it is still further the simple dictate of reason that the Creator could never have designed that the existence, the faculties, or the powers of any creature should be exercised contrary to His will or outside of His design. Therefore it is the simplest, plainest dictate of reason that this original and ultimate government, which is self-government, is self-government under God, with God, and in God. And this is truly the truest self-government.

God has created all intelligences absolutely free. He made man, equally with other intelligences, to be moral. Freedom of choice is essential to morals. To have made an intelligence unable to chose would have been to make it incapable of freedom. Therefore, He made man, equally with other intelligences, free to choose; and He ever respects that of which He is the Author, the freedom of choice. Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15; Revelation 22:17. And when, in the exercise of this freedom of choice, an intelligence chooses that his existence, with its consequent faculties and powers, shall be spent strictly subject to the will and within the design of the Creator, and so, indeed, with the Creator and in the Creator, this is in the truest sense strictly and truly self-government.

And when the service, the worship, and the allegiance of each intelligence is to be rendered entirely upon his own free choice, this, on the part of God, the Supreme and true Governor, reveals the principle of Government with the consent of the governed. Thus the divine government as it relates to both the Governor and the governed, the Creator and the creature, is demonstrated as well as revealed to be government of perfect freedom. John 8:31, 32, 36; Gal. 5:1.

Now, in presence of these principles, how alone could sin ever enter? Consider: If from the beginning of created intelligence unto this hour, every created intelligence had loved God with all his heart, all his soul, all his mind, all his strength, had freely chosen to exercise all his faculties and powers according to the will and within the purpose of God, there would have been unto this hour no sin, no evil, in the universe. And then if at this moment any intelligence were to choose to exercise his faculties and powers contrary to the will of God and outside the purpose of God - should choose not to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength - that would be a new and strange thing in the universe: it would introduce something that was not there before: and that thing would be - sin. Thus the only possible way in which evil could ever enter the universe would be by some intelligence choosing to exercise the faculties and powers of his existence apart from God - contrary to the will of God and outside the purpose of God.

In this way evil did enter. Lucifer, the most exalted creature, “the anointed cherub that covers,” who stood at such a height of perfection that it was his to set the seal to perfection itself, who was “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,” and was perfect in his ways from the day that he was created Ezekiel 28:12, 14, 15. 17; Isaiah 14:12-14. - this exalted one did choose to exalt himself out of his place, did choose to exercise his faculties and powers contrary to the will of God and outside the design of God. And this was the origin of evil. And though evil had never yet been originated, any intelligence could originate it by making that choice. And though Lucifer did originate evil, and all the flood of it had followed, yet every one who now makes that choice to exercise his faculties and powers apart from God, does in that declare that even though evil had never yet been originated, he himself would now originate it; and that since it has been originated, he himself now puts positively upon it his stamp of approval.

These truths make manifest the transcendent and ultimate truth that there is no such thing as abstractly a principle of good, and a principle of evil; but that God is the only good, and choice of separation from God is the only evil. This truth Jesus expressed when the young man came to Him, saying,

“Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

and Jesus answered,

“Why call thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”

Matthew 19:16, 17.

In God, the only good, lies inherently all conceivable good or goods; and in choice of separation from God lies inherently all conceivable evil or evils. In the original choice of Lucifer to exercise his existence, his faculties and powers, apart from God, there lay all the evil that has ever been or that can ever be. He thus became the very prince of evil; the author of all the evil that the universe can ever know.

This earth was formed to be inhabited. Isaiah 45:18. When it had been created, God created man upon it, and appointed him to have, under God, “dominion” over the beast of the field and the fowl of the air and the fishes of the sea, and over every creeping thing that moves upon the earth. Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:5-9.